Starship Battles

Starship Battles is a bit of a strange one. It holds itself like a strategy title, but it plays like a simplified arcade blaster. It imitates scope, but when you get down to the bones of the experience it's pretty shallow.

That's not to say it isn't entertaining - there's a frantic pace to the gameplay that can make for some pretty intense encounters - but if you're looking for a game that attempts to simulate the true scope and complexity of space-based combat then you're in for a horrible disappointment.

You play as the commander of a giant spaceship that's under constant attack from other spaceships. These other ships are on a kamikaze mission to plough through your shields and destroy your fragile hull.

To counter these suicidal attacks you have two weapons at your disposal, both of which you fire by tapping. The first are fast moving green missiles. These create a small blast radius and any smaller ships that get caught in these small explosions will end up dead.

Tap a button and you swap to your big red rockets. These are slower but do a lot more damage. You can use them to take out the capital ships that the small ships spew from. Destroy the big ships and you'll get a moment's respite.

You also have a nuke that regenerates when you get enough points, and you can use this to clear a swathe of attackers in one fell swoop.

And that's about it. The enemies keep coming until your defences are ultimately overwhelmed and your ship explodes in an anti-climactic fireball. Then you repeat the whole process all over again to try and get a better score.

There's nothing broken about Starships Battles, and what it does it does proficiently. The problem is it's just a bit dull. There are crescendos of tension towards the end of battles, but it's not enough to really hold your interest.

You can buy new ships if you want, either with the ore you earn through play or by flashing some real-life cash, but they don't change the basic tapping nature of the game.

If you're looking for a simple, repetitive shooter that won't task your fingers too much then Starship Battles fits the bill, but in the end that simplicity is its downfall.